Intel Craters 23% After Q4 Guidance Misses Badly Despite Q3 Beat
INTC has more than doubled off its 52-week low of $32.89.
Summary
Intel beat on Q3 but guided Q4 far below consensus, and the stock fell 23% after hours to about $70.86. Q3 revenue was $16.51B (up 21% YoY) and adjusted EPS $0.52 versus the $0.40 consensus, with adjusted operating margin at 19.6%. Data center and AI revenue jumped 78% to $7.3B and Foundry rose 58% to $6.7B, but client PC chips fell 5% to $8.1B. The problem is forward: Q4 revenue guidance of $15.0B-$16.0B against a $17.1B consensus, and EPS of $0.25 versus $0.43 expected. Management blamed a PC slump extending into 2027 (CFO Zinsner sees a 10% purchase contraction), a gas-cylinder explosion at the Israel fab costing $300M of revenue in each of Q4 2026 and Q1 2027, and 2027 CapEx above the $20B planned for 2026 with no free cash flow expected. This lands roughly two months after Intel raised $20B in equity at $95 a share, so the stock is now well below that offering price.
At the time of this announcement, INTC was trading at $70.87 on NASDAQ in the Technology sector, with a market capitalization of approximately $486.7B. The 52-week trading range was $32.89 to $142.35. This news item was assessed with negative market sentiment and an importance score of 8 out of 10. Source: Coinpedia.